Guest guest Posted January 5, 2001 Report Share Posted January 5, 2001 Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha : Sri Venkata Guravaha Namaha : Respected Members, I humbly request the members to enlighten me on the following : 1. Who are Jeeyars ? what are their duties. How many Jeeyar Matams are now. and where are they. 2. Who started this system. 3. Are Jeeyars some among the 74 Peetadipathis Sri Ramanujar appointed. 4. In what way are they different / special from our Acharyas Thanks & Regards Narayanan - Delhi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 7, 2001 Report Share Posted January 7, 2001 Dear Sri Naryanan, More erudite members within our forum can probably go into much more detail as to the importance of Jeeyars in our sampradAyam. But, I thought I would start this discussion off with the following brief summary, based on my limited understanding. - zz_nrsalarycell <zz_nrsalarycell <bhakti-list > Friday, January 05, 2001 4:52 AM Jeeyars > > 1. Who are Jeeyars ? what are their duties. How many Jeeyar > Matams are now. and where are they. The Jeeyars (also spelled as Jeears) are ordained heads of the SriVaishnava monastic institutions known as muthams or Ashramams. In almost all cases they are sanyAsins, who have renounced secular and householder life for purposes of serving the Lord and His SriVaishnava Community. Their duties are centered in living and propogating the scholarly and devotional teachings of our poorvAchAryas, and to serve as the mediators and guides in the doctrine of prapatti, the summum bonum of the SriVaishnava faith. Thus, connection and dedication to them is of utmost importance in our tradition. So much so, in fact, that it would be no understatement to say that, from the standpoint of our beliefs, respect and whole-hearted following of the AchArya is our only means to achieving God realization. While I could not venture to say how many Jeears there are currently, it would be safe to presume that there are several dozen, if one counts those that are directly involved in service to a divya dEsham or abhimAna sthalam. Among these however, the following can be considered as examples of the most well known muthams in our tradition today: * Sri Ahobila Mutham * Sri Rangam Andavan Ashramam * Sri Poundarikapuram Andavan Ashramam * Sri Parakala Mutham * Sri Vanamamalai Mutham * Sri Yatiraja Mutham * Sri Tridandi Jeear Mutham * Sri Tirupati Peria Jeear Mutham * Sri Tirupati Chinna Jeear Mutham > 2. Who started this system. The system has been around since time immemorial, according to the adherents of our tradition. But, if one were to speculate on the primary exponent of these, it would have to be Ramanuja himself, who served as the pontifical head at SriRangam, following Sri AlavandAr. He established muthams at several holy places, such as Tirupati, Melkote, Kanchipuram and Badrinath. The great exponents of our faith who followed Ramanuja, Swamy Vedanta Desika, Sri Manavalamamunigal and their disciples followed emperumAnAr's methodology in continuing to support existing muthams and Ashrams and establishing new ones where necessary. Many Jeears are connected to a temple or set of temples, but the more renowned ones are those that travel away from these locations to bring the doctrine of prapatti to the masses. > 3. Are Jeeyars some among the 74 Peetadipathis Sri Ramanujar > appointed. While some of our Jeears hail from these families, each of the 74 families that descended from Ramanuja's immediate set of disciples generally select an elder and more knowledgeable member in each generation to serve as the AchAryan for that specific family or set of families. This person takes the role of the Jeeyar in performing the sacred samAsrAyanam that provides the individual with the connection to the ancient Acharya-sishya lineage that leads through Sri Ramanuja to the Lord's Lotus Feet. > 4. In what way are they different / special from our Acharyas The terms Jeear and AchArya can virtually be used synonomously for the mutham and Ashram heads . However, as Jeears are sanyAsis, there purpose is to provide their knowledge and connection to Sri Ramanuja to a broader community. The Acharyas, such as those of the 74 described above, generally limit themeselves to smaller communities or to their own immediate circle of families. It is important to re-emphasize, though, that whether he is married or monastic, the role of the AchArya in SriVaishnavam is of utmost importance. For it is only the AchArya that can open the door to our connection to Sri Ramanuja and the Lord's Lotus Feet, who are, for the members of our faith, the Way and Goal of our Salvation. I hope this helps as a start. I would suggest searching the Bhakti list archives and checking the many links provided through the SriVaishnava Home Page or Srivaishnava Universe for more details. adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan mohan raghavan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 9, 2001 Report Share Posted January 9, 2001 Thiruvengada jeeyar Thiruvadigale Saranam. Sri rukmiNI samEta pArthasArathi parabrahmaNE namah. On Fri, 5 Jan 2001 17:22:49 +0530 zz_nrsalarycell wrote: > Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha : > Sri Venkata Guravaha Namaha : > > > > > 1. Who are Jeeyars ? what are their duties. How many > Jeeyar > Matams are now. and where are they. Dear Sriman Narayanan, namo narayana. The author of Thirumalai OLugu says that Jeeyar is a pUjyatA vAchaka Sabdam like swAmI, to revere a Parama BhAgavatOttama. Nowadays this term is used mostly for those in sannyAsASramam only. The author of Thirumalai oLugu quotes from Sri maNavALamAmunigal's SrIvachana bhUshaNa vyAkhyAnam that this term was used in respect of mAranEri nambi by Periya nambi in latter's aruLiccheyal's to udaiyavar. jeeyars have their own code of conduct prescribed in yati dharma samucchaya wirtten by gOvinda Jeeyar (yAdava prakASa), as adiyen learnt from Sriman Anantha padmanAbha swAmI. > 2. Who started this system. I think it is emberumAnAr. > 3. Are Jeeyars some among the 74 Peetadipathis Sri Ramanujar > appointed. Since thirupathi matam and Sriranga narayana Jeear matam are started by emberumanar himself, I guess the first heads of these two matams are among the 74. > 4. In what way are they different / special from our > Acharyas > > By Acharyas, you must have meant to gruhastha AchAryas. most of the Jeeyars are also Acharyas with a larger following, as Sriman Mohan Sagar has written. nobody wears kAshAyam and does samASrayaNam without AchArya niyamanam. so all Jeeyars are ultimately connected to emberumAnAr thru one of the 74 simhAsanAdhipatis. In thirupathi, Jeears are given thIrtham prior to sthAnAchAryas. Additional Info: 1.Thirupathi periya jeeyar matam was established by emberumAnAr and then ascended by manavALa mAmunigaL. mamunigal was succeeded by by his disciple Thiruvengada Jeeyar. 2. Both emberumanar and Manavala mamunigal are jeeyars. 3. Like Alwar which refers to Nammalwar in particular and desikar which means Acharya refers to Vedanta Desikar, the term Jeeyar primarily refers to ManavALa mAmunigaL. 4. Out of the eight principle disciples of Manavala Mamunigal (ashta diggajas), three are jeeyars. They are: Vanamamalai jeeyar, Thiruvengada Jeeyar and Paravastu Bhattar pirAn Jeeyar. 5. Thirupathi Chinna Jeeyar matam is not totaly independent from thirupathi Pedda Jeeyar matam. Chinna Jeeyar matam, established by Manavala Mamunigal is known as varavaramuni pItam while Pedda jeeyar matam is known as Ramanuja pItam. Chinna Jeeyar becomes Pedda Jeeyar when latter ascends the throne of moksha sAmrAjyam. The author of Thirumalai oLugu refers to Chinna Jeeyar as yuvarAja i.e. heir to the throne of Thirupathi matam. Alwar Emberumanar jeeyar thiruvadigale Saranam dAsAnudAsan Vishnu http://www.iitian.com : An Extraordinary place for Extraordinary people Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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